Kerala man sentenced to jail till death for years-long molestation of daughter

Thiruvananthapuram: A special court for Pocso cases in the Kerala capital on Wednesday sentenced a 37-year-old man to imprisonment till his death for the brutal crime of molesting his daughter for several years right from when she was five years old.

Pocso court judge M.P. Shibu, after hearing all the sides, sentenced the man to jail till his death and also directed the District Legal Service Authority to pay the victim a sum of Rs 1.50 lakh from the fine that was collected from the accused.

The man, a casual labourer hailing from suburban Aruvikara in the state capital district, had remarried after his first wife passed away and his daughter, who was one-and-a-half-year-old then, was staying with them.

He was arrested last year after his daughter disclosed her ordeal to her teacher when she came to take her Class 10 public examination conducted by the state Education Department. Finding the girl deeply disturbed, the teacher asked her the reason, and the girl broke down, saying that on the previous day after she reached home after the examination, her father molested her. The teacher informed the Child Line officials and on further questioning, the girl revealed that her father had been molesting her since she was five years old.

Then, the police got into the act, arresting the man and charging him under the stringent Pocso Act. During the trial, his second wife did her best to defend him but the prosecution broke through her defence and it was found out that she was not present when the child was molested after her exam – the incident which led to his arrest.

With 28 special fast-track Pocso courts set up by the Kerala government across the state, the cases of sexual offences against children registered in these courts get cleared quickly and in this case, it took a year from the accused’s arrest to the verdict.